Wednesday, September 9, 2009

Making steam

Why does that title make me think of the Princess, eh? For some strange reason, this article caught my eye… As those wacky “Brits” are at it once again, trying to make the ultimate tea pot, Err the world’s fastest Tea Kettle, as those BLOODY LIMEY’S will do ANYTHING for their morning tea ‘N Crumpets, eh?

And thus a dedicated team of Brit’s have recently been cavorting about the dry lake bed at Edwards Air Force Base hoping to break a very strange record that’s understandably stood for over a century now… As the current steam powered automobile record was set prior to the completion of the famed Brickyard!

Thus, while the Bonneville Speed Weeks was wrapping up, the team set to work to make their attempts on the Roger’s dry lake bed at Edwards AFB, where after many teething problems, technical issues and inclement weather, the team was finally successful with a new FIA World Record average speed of 139.843mph, breaking Fred Marriott’s 1906 Record of 127mph aboard his Stanley Steamer, with a top velocity of 151mph being reached…

2 comments:

It is easy to poke fun at this. The reality is different though. The engineering challenges were quite large. Running super heated steam in this small of a package has never been done before. Don't dis steam to quickly. Your blog would not exist without electricity produced more than likely by steam powered turbine generators.

Actually I was quite impressed by the vehicle in question... As I kept a constant eye on its progress and waited until it broke the record to scribble about it, was just trying to have fun with the article, but yes, the technical packaging and creation of such a vehicle is indeed impressive!